Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Some More Of The Tea In China

The Center for Science in the Public Interest recently released a report suggesting that the typical Chinese restaurant meal (that's American Chinese restaurants, presumably) is not so good for you. But we've still got Chinese tea.

As luck would have it, I've been working through samples of Dragon Well and Pi Lo Chun lately, and having quite a fine time of it. For an interesting look at the region of China that produces the former variety, check out this article from China View.

If pu-er is more to your liking, have a look at this article from CCTV International. It's about a two and a half kilo lot of pu-er tea, which was sent to the emperor in Beijing as a tribute 150 years ago and is now heading home to Pu'er city, in China's southwestern Yunnan province.

Here's the Web site for a company called Tea Tech. They make an assortment of green tea beverage mixes that are endorsed by none other than Jackie Chan.

Here's a use for tea that you probably never thought of. Some Chinese reporters recently submitted tea in place of urine to hospitals that apparently had dubious reputations. Six of 10 hospitals in Hangzhou concluded that the "patients" in question had urinary tract infections. Read the Reuters article here.

It's very hard to know whether such news (the 150-yr old pu'er tea) is true or not. China is famous for such publicity gimmick to create artificial perception. To me personally, even if the news is true, I still have some skepticism left in me.